Bengals safety Jessie Bates reports to team facility, signs franchise tender
opted not to sign his franchise tag and report for the start of training camp on July 25 with the rest of his teammates due to failed contract negotiations with the franchise. The Bengals’ front office, ahead of training camp, said it expected Bates to play with the team this season despite his lack of desire to play on the franchise tag amount of nearly $13 million.
The return of Bates ahead of Cincinnati’s practices against the Los Angeles Rams is significant as the two joint practices are being used as a dress rehearsal for the starters.
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How the Cincinnati Bengals and Jessie Bates got to this point
The Bengals thought they gave their second-round pick a fair contract extension offer in the 2021 offseason. Bates, who fired his first agent and hired the highly touted David Mulugheta of Athletes First to negotiate his second contract, turned the deal down.
Bates opted to participate in the team’s voluntary offseason program and all of training camp despite not reaching a long-term deal.
The 2021 season started slow for Bates from a production standpoint. He admitted the contract extension process affected his play, but hecaught his stride when it mattered most in the postseason.
“I feel like I’m at a better head space now than I was at the beginning of the season,” Bates said in November.
Bates was arguably Cincinnati’s best player on defense in the playoffs. In the four postseason games, Bates recorded 20 tackles and two interceptions.
Following the Super Bowl 56 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Bates spoke publicly about his displeasure to play the 2022 season on the franchise tag if the Bengals were to apply it to him.
After not being able to get an extension done in the weeks following, Cincinnati placed the franchise tag on Bates in early March in hopes of giving themselves more time to work out a long-term deal and to prevent him from hitting the open market. The next important deadline in the process was July 15. NFL teams had until then to sign their franchise-tagged players to multiyear contracts. The Bengals tried again with Bates’ representation, and their final offer was reportedly $4 million more than what he would make on the franchise tag, which is $12.9 million, bringing the total to $17 million.
Why the Jessie Bates, the Bengals stopped contract negotiations
By not being able to agree on a contract extension by the deadline, the Bengals and Bates were required to stop the negotiation process until after the 2022 regular season was over. Bengals owner Mike Brown spoke about the contract negotiation process, describing it as a “puzzle” and saying sometimes the team is going to lose players it wants to keep.
“It just doesn’t all fit perfectly,” Brown said at the Bengals’ media luncheon. “We’re going to have some pluses. We’re going to get some guys signed that are critical to the team. And we’re going to lose some guys.”
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick reset the safety market this summer when he signed a four-year deal worth $73.6 million and $36 million guaranteed.
It was unlikely, based off Bates’ comments about not wanting to play on the tag, that he would show up for the start of training camp.
Bates, the team’s captain in 2021, opted not to report for training camp and trained on his own away from the team. He made a surprising appearance at Cincinnati’s first preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals but didn’t return to practice the following week.
The Bengals begin joint practices with the Los Angeles Rams on Wednesday and will play their final preseason game on Saturday.